PM PLEDGES TO REVIVE MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

Pot Usage Has Almost Doubled In Past 13 Years: StatsCan

OTTAWA - Paul Martin pledged yesterday to reintroduce legislation to
decriminalize the possession and use of small amounts of marijuana, as
a new study showed Canadians' use of the drug has doubled in recent
years.

Amid speculation the new government would drop the legislation under
pressure from the United States, the Prime Minister said after the
first formal meeting of his new Cabinet that the bill "will be
reintroduced this fall."

Parliament failed to pass the legislation before it was dissolved
prior to the June 28 election.

Mr. Martin's statement came the same day Statistics Canada released a
study showing the number of Canadians, especially younger ones, who
admit to marijuana and hashish use has almost doubled over a 13-year
period.

The federal agency says about three million Canadians aged 15 and
older, or 12.2%, admitted in 2002 to using the two cannabis substances
in the previous 12 months. This was up from 6.5% in 1989 and 7.4% in
1994.

Marijuana use peaked among 18 and 19 year olds. Almost 38% of that age
group reported using marijuana and hashish in the previous year. Among
those aged 15 through 17, the rate was 29%, or almost three in 10.

Usage drops off the older Canadians get. It drops to 6% among those 45
to 54 years of age, and virtually disappears after age 65.

Men in almost all age groups were more likely to use marijuana and
hashish than women.

Mr. Martin has said he may have eaten brownies laced with hashish when
he was younger, and his predecessor, Jean Chretien, mused last year
that he may try the drug in his retirement, should it be
decriminalized.

Mr. Chretien first proposed decriminalization after a provincial court
struck down possession penalties. The bill he introduced also proposed
doubling the maximum penalty for growing more than 50 marijuana plants
to 14 years in prison.

The head of a group advocating regulated legalization of marijuana
said the StatsCan study exposes the ludicrousness of existing laws
that make pot possession a criminal offence.

"The legal status of the drug has very little to do with whether
people use it," said Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Foundation for
Drug Policy. "All we're doing is continuing to criminalize millions
and millions of Canadians. I mean, three million Canadians have used
it in the past year, are they really criminals?"

But the move toward a more permissive drug policy risks inviting the
ire of the U.S. government and may jeopardize some of the $1.5-billion
a day in commerce between the two countries.

"If we become known as a haven for the production of marijuana, I
think it's only reasonable to assume that there will be controls put
in place to prevent that type of activity from crossing the border,"
said Halifax Deputy Police Chief Chris McNeil, chairman of the
Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police drug-abuse committee.

Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, has said decriminalizing
pot possession may lead to delays at the border as officials frisk
travellers and search vehicles for drugs. In the United States,
possession charges may lead to a minimum fine of $1,000 and one year
in prison.

Mr. Martin's announcement may be greeted with even more alarm south of
the border, as U.S. officials have recently changed their drug
policies to focus on marijuana abuse.

Prompted by reports that marijuana is becoming more potent and that
U.S. children are trying it at younger ages, officials at the National
Institutes of Health and at the White House are hoping to shift some
of the focus in research and enforcement from such "hard" drugs as
cocaine and heroin to marijuana.

Drug use overall is falling among children and teens in the United
States, but officials worry children who are trying pot are doing so
at ever-younger ages, when their brains and bodies are vulnerable to
side effects.

"Most people have been led to believe that marijuana is a soft drug,
not a drug that causes serious problems," said John Walters, head of
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "[But]
marijuana today is a much more serious problem than the vast majority
of Americans understand. If you told people that one in five of 12- to
17-year-olds who ever used marijuana in their lives need treatment, I
don't think people would remotely understand it."

U.S. officials believe marijuana is a gateway drug that can lead to
the abuse of more harmful and addictive substances later in life.

But despite the rising number of pot smokers in Canada, the StatsCan
study, based on data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, showed
Canadians were significantly less likely to use cocaine/crack,
ecstasy, LSD, speed/amphetamines and heroin.

Only 2.4% of Canadians aged 15 or older had used at least one of those
drugs in the year before the survey.

Even without vocal U.S. opposition, passing the marijuana bill through
Parliament may prove difficult for the Liberal party, which lost its
majority in the June 28 federal election.

With only 135 of 308 seats in the House of Commons, the Liberals need
support from outside the party, and the Conservative party, with 99
seats, wants marijuana to remain illegal.

To pass the bill, Mr. Martin will have to rely on backing from members
of the NDP or Bloc Quebecois.

Pot usage in Quebec is higher than the national average, at 14%,
according to the StatsCan study.

Parliament is due to reconvene on Oct. 4.

When MPs consider the new bill, they may be comforted to learn that
among the three million Canadians who admitted to using cannabis in
the year before the survey, close to half used the drug less than once
a month. One in 10 reported weekly use, and another 10% reported daily
use.

As a percentage of the total population aged 15 or older, 1.1% of
Canadians used cannabis daily, 2.8% more than once a week, 3.9% at
least once a week, and 6% at least once a month, the report said.